1958
“Today is Ours”
The mood of Middle America shifted dramatically in 1958. White War Baby teens refused to see the errors of their ways, and thus, had not returned to the fold as planned. Parents believed that their teenagers had been lost to the evil influence of Rock & Roll, and now Satan planned to cast his spell over the more abundant and gullible pre-teen Boomers. The Devil’s Symphony refused to go away and the beast could not be tamed. That left one last option: Rock & Roll genocide.
As always, the most blatant reflection of such a social mood shift can be seen in the titles of the new soap operas. In 1957, when society optimistically believed that kids would make the right choice, the networks offered, “The Verdict is Yours.” In 1958 TV proclaimed that “Today is Ours.” In other words, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
Strict Law and Order returned to the tube: “The Lawman, The Rifleman, The Restless Gun, Peter Gunn, Colt 45,” and “Wanted Dead or Alive”… a subtle hint to teens: “Obey the law or else, punks!” Even a peaceful sodbuster like Lucas McCain managed to take time out from his strenuous ranch chores to blast holes in a bunch of bad guys each week. In a satire in Mad Magazine, his son asked, “Pop, why did you kill all them people?” Lucas answered, “Because I’m a peace-loving man, Son… and, there ain’t nothing more peaceful than a dead man.”
Network programmers carefully suppressed any shows that might sound attractive to rebellious teens. For example, “Traffic Court” immediately followed “Rough Riders” on the schedule. What caused this new “get tough” policy on teenagers? A new electronic sound, first heard on the radio by millions on October 5, 1957, deeply disturbed America. Was it the latest experiment on some vulgar electric guitar that shocked the audience? No, this time a high-pitched, chirping… barely audible through all that static, penetrated our brains with: “Beep…beep…beep…” The Russians had launched Sputnik (“Fellow Traveler”), a 185-pound, hollow steel ball with a transmitter, which circled the earth every ninety minutes. America tried to downplay the event as a “hunk of iron that almost anyone could have launched.” Those words briefly convinced us of our scientific superiority, but then, less a month later, on November 4th, the Russians fired another hunk of iron into space; this one much larger and containing a payload of research equipment and a dog named Taika. Now, America had to admit that the Commies had caught up and even passed us. The Reds would soon have men in space… perhaps on the moon. They could be dropping bombs on us from satellite platforms in no time at all!
America scrambled to catch up. On December 6, the eyes of the nation focused on our grapefruit-sized satellite, “Vanguard”, which sat high atop a powerful three-stage Navy rocket. At the split second of ignition, the moment of truth, our spirits soared. Unfortunately, Vanguard didn’t do likewise. Instead, the pitiful hunk of scrap metal wobbled a few feet off the launching pad, and then exploded.
Boomer kids loved silly novelty songs (the oldest of our group had barely turned twelve), and soon after Vanguard, a new tune received a lot of airplay: “While riding in my Cadillac, much to my surprise/ A little Nash Rambler was following me, about one half my size/ He must have wanted to pass me by, because he kept on tooting his horn/ I’ll show him that a Cadillac is not a car to scorn/ Beep, beep… Beep, beep. His horn went beep, beep, beep…” just like Sputnik. Kids didn’t realize it at the time, but the Cadillac symbolized the zenith of American ingenuity and the backbone of our economy, and the Rambler was Russia’s Sputnik. Each verse of the song increased in speed and intensity. The driver of the Cadillac finally pushed the gas pedal to the floor, but the Rambler continued to pass. Beep… beep… beep… beep.
Sputnik shook the very roots of our society. TV news had barely informed Americans of a space race, and a month later, we found that we were running a distant second. How could this be? Teachers in the Fifties relentlessly brainwashed Boomer kids about good old Yankee ingenuity. “American geniuses created most of the world’s recent great inventions, and the jealous Russians try to rip-off all the credit for our ideas”… But, now Boomer kids now asked their elders, “Why don’t we have a Sputnik?”
Immediately a flood of television news reports compared children in Russia with their counterparts in the United States, and they concluded that our youth engaged in frivolous activities at school, such as Drivers Ed, football and cheerleading, while Commie kids studied Astrophysics, and joined scientific research teams. Parents blamed schools, schools blamed parents, and then they both agreed that the real culprit was Rock & Roll. Our dopey teenagers squander precious time dancing at record hops and down at the soda shop, or sitting on the sofa watching Bandstand, or hiding in their rooms listening to their transistor radios. Our kids considered cheap teen magazines as the only valid reading material: “Elvis’s Favorite Menus”. That’s why we don’t have a Sputnik. That’s why the Reds will soon be dropping bombs on us from space stations! It’s the fault of those annoying teenagers and their dreadful music. That’s what’s destroying America!
#